UFOlogist Unearths Rare Footage from 1980's UFO Abductee Interview

This video was taken by Henry McKay, one of the early UFOlogists in the 1970's and 80's, back when alien abductions were a relatively new concept. Watch it to see a compelling interview with Budd Hopkins, a witness in a UFO sighting who went on to become a UFOlogist and UFO author. He was also a prominent artist; his works are displayed at the Whitney Museum, the Guggenheim Museum, Hirshhorn Museum, and the Museum of Modern Art.

In the interview, Hopkins describes himself as "essentially, an artist," and claims that he never had any interest in UFOs until he and two others witnessed a "small, circular, grayish disk" in the sky over Cape Cod. He explains that the object "hovered and flew very quickly away from us." Over the next three minutes or so, he and the other witnesses attempted to explain the object's origin, but then saw it speed away behind a car.

Hopkins then explains that he began seriously investigating the phenomenon starting in the mid-70's, and found that people who experienced UFO abduction not only experienced missing time during the alleged abduction, but had recurrent episodes of missing time starting in childhood. He and several other UFOlogists concluded that abductees are first abducted by the aliens as children in order to serve as a sort of "tagged animal" in a longitudinal study.

He stated, "Samples are taken from the body, there are often very deep incisions made which are painless most of the time... which leaves a certain pattern of scars which we run into over and over again."

He also found in his research that alien abduction often ran in families, which seemed to indicate a genetic component to the aliens' choice of subject, which he called "genetic curiosity."

He clarified that hoaxes do happen, but they're "very, very rare." He also worked closely with psychiatrists and psychologists in order to discern as much as possible whether the abduction was a hallucination. Many testimonials were given under hypnosis, and were then "confirmed" through analysis of the physical evidence left on their bodies.

(Bonus: Check out 2:06 for a random woman giving him an awesome skeptical face.)

The footage, taken from Henry McKay's considerable collection of UFO information, was recently digitized under the oversight of his niece, Michelle McKay. She wrote to i09:

"My great-uncle, Henry McKay, was a pioneer UFOlogist. He was the very first Director of MUFON for Canada. He was also one of the first modern-day UFOlogists to specialize in investigating physical traces associated with UFO landing sites and 'close-range' UFO sightings. He was an electrical engineer with the Air Force. He was also on the Board of Directors for the 'North American UFO Federation' (headed by Richard Haines), was an associate of CUFOS, and also investigated for NICAP. He was good friends with Dr. J. Allen Hynek. He also gave a briefing at a hearing to the 'Royal Commission of Electric Power Planning' in regards to UFO related power disturbances. When he passed away, all of his hundreds of UFO files were passed down to me."